Inhibition of Klebsiella pneumonia by a Novel Strain of Paenibacillus

Klebsiella pneumoniae is the causative agent of Klebsiella pneumonia and enteritis, and the prevalence of antibiotic resistant strains is becoming a serious public health problem. In this study, we isolated a novel strain of Paenibacillus polymyxa from the fecal extracts of healthy dogs that were challenged with K. pneumoniae. By combination of transposon mutagenesis and metabolic analysis, a nonribosomal peptide synthase gene cluster was identified to be involved in the antagonism, and the molecular weight of the compound was 1168.38 g/mol. These findings will enlarge the arsenal against drug-resistant pathogens.